


Meathead

by Thatoneloser_kid



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 18:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14267223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatoneloser_kid/pseuds/Thatoneloser_kid
Summary: Tumblr prompt ' hey! could you do some kind of coffee shop au for nico and karolina? i need it.'





	Meathead

**Author's Note:**

> Send me prompts? Thatoneloser-kid.tumblr.com

So there’s this girl.

A girl Karolina has never spoken to outside of asking for her order.

A girl Karolina finds herself staring dreamily at from behind the counter to the point Chase has to whip her with the towel and tell her to get back to it, a little grin on his face.

The girl came in every morning, bang on nine am, always dressed in different shades of black, her earbuds in her ears and her laptop bag on her shoulder.

Karolina always perked up when she heard the chime of the door at nine am, like one of Pavlov’s dogs (though she didn’t salivate at the bell, as much as Chase teases her for ‘drooling all over the coffee beans’), a spring in her step as she headed for the counter, shoving Chase away when he playfully pretended he was going to take the girls order.

The first time the girl came into the cafe it was a frigid Tuesday morning in January.

Karolina was exhausted, she was up late the night before studying and doing homework. It wasn’t too busy so Karolina her overturned a bucket that had previously been used to hold coffee beans and was sitting on it, her elbow resting on the counter and her head sleepily resting on her fist.

She was so exhausted, all but sleeping with her eyes open, that she didn’t heard the bell ring, nor did she see someone make they way over to the counter. It wasn’t until Chase hit her in the back of the head with a coffee bean from the back of the shop that she startled, glaring back at the boy.

“What the hell, dude?”

Chase just pointed behind Karolina, “Costumer.”

Karolina turned around slowly, hoping Chase was teasing her, but her eyes widened when she was met with almost bored brown eyes.

Karolina slowly stood, her lips parted slightly, the words she rhymed off daily completely lost in her throat. This girl was dark (dress, hair, and makeup wise), she was a little grumpy, but, god, she was beautiful.

And she was just staring awkwardly at Karolina, waiting for her to speak.

Karolina never did.

“What my colleague is trying to say is what can I get you?” Chase intercepted, pushing Karolina away.

Karolina was wallowing in self pity when Chase came into the back.

“She swings,” Chase pretended to swing an invisible bat. “She strikes out.”

“Shut up,” Karolina grumbled, attempting to push the boy, who giggles, an honestly to god giggle, and danced away.

“And the crowd is disappointed by her horrendous effort.” He cups his hands around his mouth and boos.

“She was pretty, okay!” Karolina huffed, falling onto her bucket with a ‘humf’.

“Useless lesbian strikes again,” Chase laughed, his gleeful teasing cut off when Karolina threw a wet towel at him, causing it to smack him in the face.

He looked shocked, looking down at the towel then at Karolina. “That was rude.”

“So is making fun of your best friend,” Karolina shoots back.

Chase scoffed. “Molly is my best friend.”

“Nah,” Karolina smirked. “She’s your dream sister in law.”

That made Chase blush, and made Karolina feel more than satisfied with herself.

The girl didn’t stay that day.

She was there the following day, same time, and Karolina was ready. She had psyched herself up for this, and she didn’t have Chase to bug her this time (granted, Gert wasn’t much better).

Karolina spent the first hour of her shift glancing at the door, perking up when she spotted the girl through the glass. She pretended to be busy until the girl reached the counter.

“Hi, what can I get you?” Karolina smiled.

That seemed to surprise the girl, whether it was the fact Karolina actual spoke or the fact she was this awake at nine am, Karolina wasn’t sure.

“Black coffee, three shots of espresso.” The girl ordered, in a gruff, but somehow soothing voice.

“Okay,” She said after a few seconds, bringing her pen to the cup and glancing up at the girl. “Name?”

“Nico,”

“Nico,” Karolina nodded, writing the name on the cup. “I’ll get that right away.”

Karolina made the order, sliding it over the counter with a soft smile.

Nico didn’t smile, not really, but her lips lifted a little and that was good enough.

“Thank you,”

Nico stayed that day, settling at a table by the window and pulling out her laptop. She stayed for an hour an a half.

Karolina was useless for an hour and a half.

It went pretty much the same for the next month, Nico would show up at nine am every weekday, settle at the same table and work on her laptop for an hour to two hours then leave.

Nico was dark, and shut off, and never smiled.

Karolina started spending the half hour before Nico showed up drawing stupid little drawings, in a lame attempt to make the girl smile.

It started the week of Valentine’s Day, with Karolina drawing Cupid, with an arrow in his bow, and as you turned the cup the arrow flew and each day Karolina would change up what it came in contact with. A dog, a cat, a old man, a young adult, and Donald Trump on Valentine’s Day, showing him falling in love with himself.

Nico didn’t seem to notice the drawing the first day, probably figuring it was their Valentine’s Day cups, but the second day she sat down, spinning the cup to see the design, then she looked around at other peoples cups, frowning when they were blank. She glanced up at Karolina who quickly looked away, rolling her eyes at a grinning Molly.

“Smooth,” Molly teased.

“Shut up,” Karolina huffed, but there was no venom in it like there would be with Chase and Gert.

The Trump drawing was the only one to draw an actual laugh from Nico. That laugh put a spring in Karolina’s step for days afterward.

The drawings changed after Valentine’s, becoming just random stuff that Karolina could think up, had experienced or seen. There was a theme around holidays, like Easter, which was full or little chicks, bunnies and eggs.

Nico broke the routine mid April.

She came in at her usual time of nine am, left around half eleven, that was normal. But then she showed up again at eight that night.

Karolina was sleepy, but playing around with Molly behind the counter while Chase cleaned the back.

They were throwing M&M’s into each other’s mouths when Nico came in, the chime catching Karolina’s attention, meaning the hard candy hit her on the side of the head.

“Molly!” Karolina huffed with a little laugh.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Molly grinned, dancing off into the back.

“Hey,” Karolina breathed. “Usual?”

Nico looked a little out of sorts, angrier than usual.

“Yeah, please.”

”Take a seat, I can bring it over.” Karolina offered, going to make the drink.

Nico had her head in her hands when Karolina made her way over, glancing up when the cup was placed on the table. “Thank you.”

“Are you okay?” Karolina questioned unsurely.

“I’m fine,” Nico answered shortly.

“Okay,” Karolina nodded. “I mean, I don’t believe you but okay.”

Nico’s lips quirked at that. “What do you do when someone cheats on you?”

“You dump’em.” Karolina answered easily.

“Just like that?” Nico asked. “Even if there was a reason?”

“There is never a reason to cheat on someone.”

“What if the other person was distant?” Nico asked, her fingers tracing the lid of her coffee cup.

“Doesn’t matter,” Karolina shrugged. “Does the distant person want to be with the person who cheated?”

Karolina wasn’t sure if she was overstepping, but then Nico laughed, humourlessly. “It’s all they’ve ever known, since freshman year of high school.”

“It’s comfortable, I get that, but sometimes comfort doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.” Karolina said, and Nico looked up at her with a thoughtful expression. “You should dump this person anyway, what they done was inexcusable, but forcing something that isn’t working, it usually ends badly.”

“Yeah, It hasn’t really been working for a while.” Nico admitted. “I kind of met someone new, nothing has happened, hell we have barely even spoken.”

“But?”

“I don’t know, they’re sweet, you know?” Nico shrugged. “I suppose that makes me just as bad as him.”

“No, you never acted on anything, he did.”

“I walked in on him with my sister, it’s her birthday and I was going to see her with him.” Nico growled.

“Jeez, that’s horrible. I’m sorry.” Karolina sighed. “Had it been going on long?”

“I have no idea, I left and came here.”

Karolina nodded. “Can I get you something to eat? On the house.”

“No, but I could eat, and pay for what I eat.”

Karolina laughed, nodding as she looked down at her feet. “Okay, what can I get you?”

“Can I get a panini? Pesto, tomato and mozzarella, please.”

“Sure, I will get that right to you.” Karolina smiled, turning on the balls of her feet, stopping after a few steps and turning back to Nico. “You deserve someone better than this guy, you’re too good for him.”

“Thank you,”

Karolina nodded once, heading off to make Nico’s food.

Karolina placed it on the table when it was heated up, offering Nico a soft smile before getting back to work.

Nico came over to pay about half an hour later.

“Thank you, for earlier.” Nico said, tapping her card against the machine.

“Of course,” Karolina smiled, placing the card reader down. “And good luck, with your boyfriend and the person you met.”

“Ex-boyfriend,” Nico corrected. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,”

Things when back to normal after that, Nico came in at nine am, got her usual and sat on her laptop for a while.

The only thing that really changed was that Karolina would somethings catch Nico glancing at her, and Nico wouldn’t quickly look away like Karolina does. She would offer Karolina a little smile then go back to work.

It was a week after Nico had found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her that he showed up at the cafe.

Karolina didn’t noticed at first, she was too busy dancing around behind the counter with Molly to some old Taylor Swift song, catching Nico’s eye, her chest fluttering when she noticed the girl was watching her over her laptop, her chin resting on her hand and a soft smile on her lips.

Then when Karolina glanced over a few minutes later Nico had closed her laptop and was staring, discontented, at the boy across from her.

Karolina looked away, it was none of her business.

She glanced over every so often, only deciding to interject when Nico stood and the boy gripped onto her wrist.

Karolina excused herself from Molly and headed over, just in time to hear the boy hiss “just let me fucking explain, Nico.” Through gritted teeth, which made Karolina flair with anger.

“Is he bothering you?” Karolina asked, stepping up alongside Nico.

“Nothing I can’t handle.” Nico sneered, snatching her arm back.

“This is none of your business.” The boy growled, turning back to Nico, pointing at her. “You aren’t even letting me explain myself.”

Karolina caught the boys wrist, taking him completely by surprise.

“Pointing is rude, were you never taught any manners.” Karolina threw Alex’s hand down. “I mean, obviously not, judging by how you speak to women.”

“This is-“

Karolina cut him off by holding her hand up. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“But-“

“Now,”

Alex glared at her. “What are you going to do? Get that meathead to kick me out?” The boy scoffed, motioning to Chase who was dancing around with Molly as they cleaned the floors.

“I don’t need that meathead,” Karolina shot back. “I’m a big enough meathead to deal with you myself.” She said, faltering a little at her words, and Nico even snorted out a laugh quietly beside her, covering her mouth with her hand. Karolina squared her shoulders. “Leave. Now.”

Alex looked like he was about to argue but decided against it, leaving with a huff.

“Thank you, meathead.”  Nico teased, pulling Karolina’s eyes away from the door, a shy little smile pulling its way into her lips as she tucked her hair behind we ears.

“Yeah, I’m not great with confrontation.”

“You done pretty well, you even owned the whole meathead thing.” Nico said in a playful voice. “I’m Nico, I don’t think we ever really introduced ourselves properly.”

“I know, you’ve been coming here for months.” Karolina laughed. “I’m Karolina.”

“I know,” Nico flicked the badge on Karolina’s chest. “I’ve been coming her for months. Besides, it would be kind of rude to not know the name of the girl who has been drawing cute little shit on my cups.”

Karolina laughed bashfully, her eyes dropping to her feet. “It kinda looked like you could use a pick me up, even with that heart attack in a cup you get every morning.”

“I need something to get me through the day,”

“Try an apple, scientifically proven to help you wake up faster and better than caffeinated drinks.”

“Are you trying to get rid of business?” Nico asked, quirking an eyebrow at Karolina.

“You could always come in for a hot chocolate.” Karolina joked, and Nico actually smiled.

“Maybe, with a couple of shots of espresso in it.”

“That sounds disgusting,” Karolina laughed.

Nico just stared at her for a few seconds, a soft smile on her lips, and Karolina wondered what she was thinking, but before she had the chance to ask Nico looked away, packing up her stuff. “I gotta go.”

“Can I walk you to your car?” Karolina asked, backtracking a little when Nico frowned up at her. “That kid could still be hanging around, waiting for you to leave.”

“Okay, sure.” Nico shouldered her bag, grabbing her coffee cup and heading for the door.

“I’ll be back in a sec, Chase.”

“Sure, you do you, honey.” Chase called and Molly laughed loudly, but Karolina ignored them, opening the door for Nico and flipping Chase off.

“Thanks, again, for helping me out.” Nico said when she reached her car. “I had it handled but you shortened the amount of time I had to spend with him.”

“It was no problem,”

Nico smiled, handing Karolina her cup, laughing when Karolina frowned down at it. “Maybe don’t chuck it right away.” Was all Nico said before getting into her car.

Karolina watched the car leave before looking down at the cup, a smile blooming on her lips when she noticed a number above her drawing and ‘it is up to you if you use it’ scribbled underneath.

Karolina held the cup to her chest, fist pumping the air and spinning on the spot.

Molly and Chase were watching her with matching grins when she entered the shop. “What was the Bender fist pump for?”

“None of your business,” Karolina scoffed, quickly typing Nico’s number into her phone before slipping the cup into her bag.

She would text Nico later that night, she didn’t want to come across desperate and needed.

She had texted Nico before the lunch time rush that day.


End file.
